Quality and management status of the drinking water supplies in a semiarid region of Northeastern Brazil.

Surface and groundwater resources in the Seridó Region (Brazilian semiarid) were investigated to evaluate their current quality conditions and suitability for domestic use. The water was characterized in terms of physical, chemical, and radiological parameters; including those required by the Brazilian Drinking Water Quality Standard (DWQS). Information about major and trace elements and radiological aspects of the water are reported for the first time. Salinization was confirmed as a key problem in the region, driven natural and anthropogenic. Overall, water has poor organoleptic characteristics. The concentration of most trace elements was below the recommended level, except for uranium and selenium in groundwater. Gross alpha and beta activities higher than the recommended levels were also recorded in several water samples, mostly from the investigated aquifers. In these samples, a detailed radionuclide analysis is required to estimate the effective dose received by the local population. Overall, the results show that water from the investigated region is not suitable for human consumption unless proper treatment is applied. Water requires proper treatment to decrease the content of dissolved salts, toxic elements, and radionuclides responsible for the high gross alpha and beta activities.

A socio-psychological model of laser levelling impacts assessment.

Application of technologies has an important role in agricultural development. Identifying and assessing the impacts of agricultural technologies is necessary. This study aimed at assessing the impacts of laser levelling economically, socially, environmentally, and technically in the viewpoint of the agricultural experts and identifying factors determining their perception of the impacts. The study samples (151 experts) were selected using multi-stage random sampling in Fars Province, Iran. The results revealed that experts considered uniform distribution of water, using conservation tillage, facilitating agricultural activities, decreased water consumption and decrease of water wasting as the most important technical impacts of laser levelling technology. The most environmentally important impacts were the decrease of soil erosion and retention of crop residues. Experts stated the most significant social impacts as improvement in villages living conditions and sense of belonging to rural areas. Besides, an increase of income and reduction of inputs costs were among the economic impacts of laser levelling technology. According to the results, attitude towards water and soil resources conservation and environmental beliefs had the highest direct effect on individual perception toward impacts. Practical recommendations have been presented based on the results of the study.

Association between having a hot spring water supply in the home and prevention of long-term care.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: According to basic studies, hot spring use has positive effects on the mind and body. However, the association between habitual hot spring use and prevention of long-term care is unknown. Using long-term care insurance data for the residents of Atami City, Japan, who can choose to install hot spring water supply in their homes, this study aimed to determine the association between the installation of a hot spring water supply in the home and prevention of long-term care. METHODS: 1. STUDY DESIGN: case-control study 2. SUBJECTS: 2719 residents (754 men, 1965 women) of Atami City, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, who received long-term care insurance and were certified as "Needing Support" or "Needing Long-Term Care" as of March 2017. 3. Survey methods: Information on long-term care insurance certification was linked to subjects' care level dating back to their initial certification. Also, the installation (or lack thereof) of hot spring water supply in each subject's home was linked to information on Atami household water use as of March 2017. 4. Analysis methods: The age distribution of the subjects was determined. Initial care status and care status as of March 2017 were then compared for the 2194 subjects who received long-term care certification at least twice. These subjects were classified into two groups: those whose care level had not changed or had improved (no change/improvement group) and those whose care level had worsened (worsening group). Subjects were then compared by sex and initial care level in terms of hot spring installation and percentages of no change/improvement or worsening of care level; odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using the chi-square test. Lastly, the same analysis was performed for all subjects grouped together, and ORs and 95% CIs were calculated using the Mantel-Haenszel test. RESULTS: Hot springs were installed in the homes of 2359 subjects overall (86.8%). The no change/improvement group and the worsening group comprised 1192 and 1002 subjects, respectively. Overall, improvement or no change in care level was observed in 1050 subjects (55.2%) in the hot spring group and 142 subjects in the no hot spring group (48.5%). Sex-adjusted OR (95% CI) was 1.311 (1.025-1.677, p = 0.036), which represented a significant association. Having a hot spring water supply in the home may be associated with preventing worsening of care level. CONCLUSION: Having a hot spring water supply in the home may be associated with preventing worsening of care level.

Identifying the underlying causes of biological instability in a full-scale drinking water supply system.

Changes in bacterial concentration and composition in drinking water during distribution are often attributed to biological (in)stability. Here we assessed temporal biological stability in a full-scale distribution network (DN) supplied with different types of source water: treated and chlorinated surface water and chlorinated groundwater produced at three water treatment plants (WTP). Monitoring was performed weekly during 12 months in two locations in the DN. Flow cytometric total and intact cell concentration (ICC) measurements showed considerable seasonal fluctuations, which were different for two locations. ICC varied between 0.1-3.75 × 105 cells mL-1 and 0.69-4.37 × 105 cells mL-1 at two locations respectively, with ICC increases attributed to temperature-dependent bacterial growth during distribution. Chlorinated water from the different WTP was further analysed with a modified growth potential method, identifying primary and secondary growth limiting compounds. It was observed that bacterial growth in the surface water sample after chlorination was primarily inhibited by phosphorus limitation and secondly by organic carbon limitation, while carbon was limiting in the chlorinated groundwater samples. However, the ratio of available nutrients changed during distribution, and together with disinfection residual decay, this resulted in higher bacterial growth potential detected in the DN than at the WTP. In this study, bacterial growth was found to be higher (i) at higher water temperatures, (ii) in samples with lower chlorine residuals and (iii) in samples with less nutrient (carbon, phosphorus, nitrogen, iron) limitation, while this was significantly different between the samples of different origin. Thus drinking water microbiological quality and biological stability could change during different seasons, and the extent of these changes depends on water temperature, the water source and treatment. Furthermore, differences in primary growth limiting nutrients in different water sources could contribute to biological instability in the network, where mixing occurs.

Managing Scarce Water Resources in China's Coal Power Industry.

Coal power generation capacity is expanding rapidly in the arid northwest regions in China. Its impact on water resources is attracting growing concerns from policy-makers, researchers, as well as mass media. This paper briefly describes the situation of electricity-water conflict in China and provides a comprehensive review on a variety of water resources management policies in China's coal power industry. These policies range from mandatory regulations to incentive-based instruments, covering water withdrawal standards, technological requirements on water saving, unconventional water resources utilization (such as reclaimed municipal wastewater, seawater, and mine water), water resources fee, and water permit transfer. Implementing these policies jointly is of crucial importance for alleviating the water stress from the expanding coal power industry in China.

Investigation of Cost and Energy Optimization of Drinking Water Distribution Systems.

Holistic management of water and energy resources through energy and water quality management systems (EWQMSs) have traditionally aimed at energy cost reduction with limited or no emphasis on energy efficiency or greenhouse gas minimization. This study expanded the existing EWQMS framework and determined the impact of different management strategies for energy cost and energy consumption (e.g., carbon footprint) reduction on system performance at two drinking water utilities in California (United States). The results showed that optimizing for cost led to cost reductions of 4% (Utility B, summer) to 48% (Utility A, winter). The energy optimization strategy was successfully able to find the lowest energy use operation and achieved energy usage reductions of 3% (Utility B, summer) to 10% (Utility A, winter). The findings of this study revealed that there may be a trade-off between cost optimization (dollars) and energy use (kilowatt-hours), particularly in the summer, when optimizing the system for the reduction of energy use to a minimum incurred cost increases of 64% and 184% compared with the cost optimization scenario. Water age simulations through hydraulic modeling did not reveal any adverse effects on the water quality in the distribution system or in tanks from pump schedule optimization targeting either cost or energy minimization.

Global and local health burden trade-off through the hybridisation of quantitative microbial risk assessment and life cycle assessment to aid water management.

Life cycle assessment (LCA) and quantitative risk assessment (QRA) are commonly used to evaluate potential human health impacts associated with proposed or existing infrastructure and products. Each approach has a distinct objective and, consequently, their conclusions may be inconsistent or contradictory. It is proposed that the integration of elements of QRA and LCA may provide a more holistic approach to health impact assessment. Here we examine the possibility of merging LCA assessed human health impacts with quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) for waterborne pathogen impacts, expressed with the common health metric, disability adjusted life years (DALYs). The example of a recent large-scale water recycling project in Sydney, Australia was used to identify and demonstrate the potential advantages and current limitations of this approach. A comparative analysis of two scenarios - with and without the development of this project - was undertaken for this purpose. LCA and QMRA were carried out independently for the two scenarios to compare human health impacts, as measured by DALYs lost per year. LCA results suggested that construction of the project would lead to an increased number of DALYs lost per year, while estimated disease burden resulting from microbial exposures indicated that it would result in the loss of fewer DALYs per year than the alternative scenario. By merging the results of the LCA and QMRA, we demonstrate the advantages in providing a more comprehensive assessment of human disease burden for the two scenarios, in particular, the importance of considering the results of both LCA and QRA in a comparative assessment of decision alternatives to avoid problem shifting. The application of DALYs as a common measure between the two approaches was found to be useful for this purpose.

Critical insights for a sustainability framework to address integrated community water services: Technical metrics and approaches.

Planning for sustainable community water systems requires a comprehensive understanding and assessment of the integrated source-drinking-wastewater systems over their life-cycles. Although traditional life cycle assessment and similar tools (e.g. footprints and emergy) have been applied to elements of these water services (i.e. water resources, drinking water, stormwater or wastewater treatment alone), we argue for the importance of developing and combining the system-based tools and metrics in order to holistically evaluate the complete water service system based on the concept of integrated resource management. We analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of key system-based tools and metrics, and discuss future directions to identify more sustainable municipal water services. Such efforts may include the need for novel metrics that address system adaptability to future changes and infrastructure robustness. Caution is also necessary when coupling fundamentally different tools so to avoid misunderstanding and consequently misleading decision-making.

[Water and health-related problems, local perception and quality of water sources in a Toba (qom) community in the Impenetrable (Chaco, Argentina)]. / Problemática hídrico-sanitaria, percepción local y calidad de fuentes de agua en una comunidad toba (qom) del Impenetrable (Chaco, Argentina).

We present a transdisciplinary study centering on aspects of environmental health of the Toba (qom) communities that relate to water and health problems of the Impenetrable Chaco region. Information was obtained through the methods and tools of participatory research, household participant observation, and ethnobotanical documentation of species related to water management and use. Vernacular terms referring to the suitability and taste of the water, as well as representations, attitudes and practices related to water collection and purification were recorded. In addition, a microbiological and physicochemical analysis of the water was performed and compared with the perceptual categories. It was observed that perceptual aspects were in tension with the hygienic quality of water. We documented phreatophyte plants, indicative of the presence of water, as well as plants that store water, act as flocculants, refresh the water or improve taste. The results of this research are discussed from an ecosystem approach and its relationship to the development of proposals for intervention.

Problemática hídrico-sanitaria, percepción local y calidad de fuentes de agua en una comunidad toba (qom) del Impenetrable (Chaco, Argentina) / Water and health-related problems, local perception and quality of water sources in a Toba (qom) community in the Impenetrable (Chaco, Argentina)

Se presenta un estudio transdisciplinario que focaliza aspectos de la salud ambiental de las comunidades tobas (qom) en relación con la problemática hídrico-sanitaria de la región del Impenetrable chaqueño. Se obtuvo información mediante métodos de investigación participativa, observación en el ámbito doméstico, y documentación etnobotánica de especies relacionadas al manejo y uso del agua. Se registraron términos vernáculos referidos a la aptitud y el sabor del agua, así como las representaciones, actitudes y prácticas en relación con las prácticas de obtención y depuración. Asimismo se realizó una exploración microbiológica y físico-química, la que se cotejó con las categorías perceptuales. Se observó que los aspectos perceptuales estarían en tensión con la calidad higiénica del agua. Se documentaron plantas freatófitas, indicadoras de presencia agua, acuíferas, floculantes, refrescantes y mejoradoras del sabor. Los resultados de esta investigación se discuten en relación con el enfoque ecosistémico y la formulación de propuestas de intervención.

We present a transdisciplinary study centering on aspects of environmental health of the Toba (qom) communities that relate to water and health problems of the Impenetrable Chaco region. Information was obtained through the methods and tools of participatory research, household participant observation, and ethnobotanical documentation of species related to water management and use. Vernacular terms referring to the suitability and taste of the water, as well as representations, attitudes and practices related to water collection and purification were recorded. In addition, a microbiological and physicochemical analysis of the water was performed and compared with the perceptual categories. It was observed that perceptual aspects were in tension with the hygienic quality of water. We documented phreatophyte plants, indicative of the presence of water, as well as plants that store water, act as flocculants, refresh the water or improve taste. The results of this research are discussed from an ecosystem approach and its relationship to the development of proposals for intervention.